Erica Verrillo has written seven books and published five. She doesn't know why anyone with an ounce of self-preservation would ever want to publish. But, if you insist on selling your soul to the devil, learn how to do it right: marketing, literary agents, book promotion, editing, pitching your book, how to get reviews, and ... most important of all ... everything she did wrong.
In the interests of protecting the right to free speech, she did not vote for Trump.
#NotMyPresident

Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto-based company that publishes series romance and
women's fiction. Owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper
publisher in Canada, the company publishes approximately 120 new titles
each month in 29 different languages in 107 international markets on
six continents. These books are written by over 1,300 authors worldwide,
offering readers a broad range of fiction including romance,
psychological thrillers and relationship novels. The company reported
sales of 131 million books in 2006—half overseas and 96% outside of
Canada.

How to submit: First: check out the Harlequin Writing Guidelines
and identify the Series that your novel best fits. The only lines
accepting manuscripts are the Harlequin Series and Harlequin Kimani.
Please note that their single title imprints comprising Harlequin MIRA,
Harlequin HQN, Harlequin TEEN and Harlequin Nonfiction only accept
agented submissions.

Second: check the Electronic Manuscript Guidelines
for further instruction. Briefly, have your manuscript saved as .txt,
.rtf, .doc or .docx, and follow the naming convention of
LastName_SeriesInitials_Manuscript Title. For Series initials, see
below. Please include your query letter as page 1 of your file, with
your synopsis starting on page 2. The recommended length for your
synopsis is between 500-1000 words. Your synopsis should provide an
overview of your story – including the ending! Please note that your
manuscript should start on the page after your synopsis.

Third: Please sign in or register to use Harlequin Manuscript
Submission.

Fourth: If you have had encouragement from a specific editor or have
information you think would be useful beyond your query letter, please
include it in the comments box. If there is important information, do
let them know.

__________________________________

Forever Yours

Forever Yours is a digital-only imprint of Grand Central Publishing, which is part of Hachette Book Group. Forever Yours publishes new works as well as backlist titles
from its nine-year-old Forever imprint. The imprint does two to four
e-book titles a month

What they are looking for: Forever Yours is currently accepting romance submissions from all
subgenres, including but not limited to: contemporary, romantic comedy,
romantic suspense, western, historical, inspirational, paranormal,
sci-fi/fantasy, futuristic, urban fantasy, steampunk, time-travel, and
erotica. We are not accepting YA, mystery, general fiction, non-fiction,
or poetry.

How to submit: They are accepting novella length works (8,000-35,000 words), as well as longer works from 35,000-100,000 words. Send the following to this address: ForeverYours@hbgusa.com

A query letter introducing yourself, the genre you are writing in, and the word count of your work.

A detailed 3-5 page synopsis.

Your completed manuscript saved as an RTF file. Forever Yours will only consider manuscripts that are complete at the time of submission.

_____________________________________________

Carina Press

Carina Press is one of Harlequin’s digital-first adult fiction
single-title imprints, publishing first in digital, with releases in
audio and print as well.Though Harlequin is mainly known as a romance publisher,
Carina Press publishes a wide range of adult fiction genres and features
books from talented authors in all genres, including romance, science
fiction, fantasy, mystery and more.

What they are looking for: [From the website] We are seeking submissions in all subgenres of romance with all levels
of sensuality. We welcome everything from the very sweet to the
incredibly erotic, featuring couples (or multiples) from all walks of
life and sexual orientation, including same-sex romances. Romances
should focus on the development of the relationship, as well as external
and internal conflict; the heat level should be appropriate to the book
and enhance the story, and the primary relationship in the book should
offer a happily ever after (HEA) or happily for now (HFN) in an
emotionally satisfying manner. Sorry, but one of the couple cannot die
or leave the other if it’s to be sold as a romance!

How to submit: Please submit queries for only completed, fully polished manuscripts,
unless previously arranged otherwise with an editor. Queries must include the following and will not be reviewed if any piece is missing:

Required: In the submissions form, you will be asked for a brief,
introductory query letter listing genre, word count and a short
description of the book, as well as any pertinent information about the
author, including both legal name and pen name and any writing credits.
The query letter is your sales pitch and we use the information included
in it.

Required: The full manuscript saved as an RTF or DOC file and
attached, with file name TITLE_MANUSCRIPT where you substitute your
book’s title in place of TITLE. (example: WarAndPeace_Manuscript)

Required: 2-5 page synopsis of book that details character
development, plot, and conflict/story resolution. Attach as an RTF or
DOC file with file name TITLE_SYNOPSIS where you substitute your book’s
title in place of TITLE. (Example: WarAndPeace_Synopsis)

Please be sure to put the following information on the first page of
all files: manuscript name, author pen name/legal name, email address,
phone number, genre and word count. If you don’t include your phone
number, it makes it impossible for us to make The Call!

Combined size of both attachments must be under 4 MB in size. We’re
unable to send files larger than this to our editors due to restrictions
in our email system. If your manuscript is over 4 MB, please remove
extra images, delete extraneous styles or font use that may increase
file size

Please allow 12 weeks for an editorial response to your submission.
If a response has not been received after 12 weeks, please follow-up via
your submittable account by adding a note to your submission log.
____________________________________________

Please submit a synopsis of your book that summarizes the story, including the ending, that is no more than two pages long. Please title your synopsis e.g., Synopsis for Romance Novel, 85,ooo words.

Your submission must be double spaced, Times New Roman 12 point, with one inch borders, submitted in MS Word with the book title and your name in the header flush right.

Please submit your personal marketing plan. Don’t panic. We’re a full service publishing house. Of course we’re going to market your book. But in this day and age, let’s be realistic. You have to have some savvy about putting yourself and your work out there. Commitment to your work and your writing goals is a good thing.

Harper Impulse is a division of HarperCollins. They are actively seeking commercial, romantic fiction. "We are looking for authors with a fresh voice, strong storytelling abilities, original ideas and a compelling storyline. If you believe your manuscript has these qualities, then we want to see it!"

Digital only
Loveswept and Flirt are Random House imprints. "Our program
is managed with the same attention given to all of our other imprints within
Random House. Every book will be assigned to an accomplished Random
House editor and a dedicated marketer and publicist. Not only will authors
benefit from working with the finest cover designers to ensure irresistibly
eye-catching books, but they will also be offered the unique advantage of
social media tools and training that will allow them to connect directly with
their readers. Every title will be available for purchase at major eRetailers
and will be compatible with all reading devices."

"Destiny Romance is passionately interested in all kinds of romantic fiction, from sweet and tender through to saucy and sensual. We’re looking for all subgenres, including but not limited to: contemporary, historical, suspense, paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi and erotica. If you’ve come up with a new style of romance, then we’re interested in that too.

We are accepting shorter stories from 25,000 words, right up to full-length novels of 100,000-plus. We will not consider manuscripts of less than 25,000 words, non-fiction work, children’s books or poetry.

A strong voice, originality and intense emotions will help your manuscript stand out from the crowd.

At this stage, we are particularly on the hunt for historical (Regency) romance, contemporary romance featuring high-powered men and women, medical romance and erotic romance. At present, we are only accepting submissions from Australian and New Zealand writers."

Monday, February 24, 2014

Dana Weinberg has done another survey analysis, this time of author satisfaction.

She compared how happy authors were with royalties, editorial help, copies sold, and so on across three publishing platforms: traditional, self-published and hybrid (a combination of the two).

Are the horror stories about traditional publishers true? Her conclusion was a resounding "meh." Self-publishing outperformed traditional publishing, but by only a small margin.

I have a few comments to make about
this survey. The first is that people are more reluctant to give
negative answers on surveys than positive ones. Every
survey is slanted towards positive responses.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the majority of books that are traditionally published don't make back their advances.

What this means is that publishers don't put a lot of time or energy promoting books by authors who aren't already celebrities. The reason they don't bother is that they would rather invest their resources in promoting cash cows. With hundreds of authors, and thousands of titles on their lists, this makes sense for large houses.

The third thing to keep in mind is that some of these horror stories are the norm. Authors who are "cursed with ugly covers ... receive very little assistance or support in the way of marketing and promotion, or learned that their publishers had little investment in their careers as writers and/or no interest in their future books" is not a horror story - it is the reality of the publishing world, and thinking otherwise is delusional.

Just to give you some perspective, here are a couple of real horror stories:

You sign a contract with a major publisher, only to have is scrapped when the house goes through an organizational shake-up. You can't find another publisher. (That happened to a friend of mine.)

You submit your manuscript, and your editor wants you to take out any word longer than two syllables, shift the POV, change the title, and delete half the chapters. Your baby is butchered. (That happened to me.)

While traditional publishing is not all it's cracked up to be (it really isn't), believing that self-publishing is the road to the Land of Milk and Honey is delusional as well.

Those who find themselves dissatisfied with self-publishing have to ask themselves some hard questions. Have I spent several hours a day marketing and promoting my work? Have I researched the market to find out how I can reach my audience, or have I assumed that simply "putting it out there" is enough? Did I expect instant fame and fortune?

Let's be realistic. No matter how you publish - whether you have taken the traditional route, or done it yourself - great expectations must be matched by a great amount of work. There is no substitute.

___________________________________

How Common Are Traditional Publishing Horror Stories?—Author Survey Results

I have heard numerous horror stories on the fiction front from authors who sold their books to publishers only to find they had lost control of content, were cursed with ugly covers that doomed any hope of sales, received very little assistance or support in the way of marketing and promotion, or learned that their publishers had little investment in their careers as writers and/or no interest in their future books. Such horror stories often seem pervasive, and they easily become rallying cries for self-publishing and the greater control it provides authors. Are these tales of dissatisfaction with traditional publishing notable exceptions, or are they the norm?

The traditional-publishing victims I’ve encountered typically report that they had been thrilled to receive their contracts and had accepted neglect or poor treatment or disadvantageous terms because they felt they had no choice. Indeed, before self-publishing became a viable option, few of them did. Worse, such experiences could harken the death spiral for an author’s career: no investment from the publisher could lead to sluggish sales which in turn could lead to poor chances of selling a subsequent title either to publishers or bookstores. Authors would be forced to abandon series or throw away their brands and try to reinvent themselves.

Cautionary tales capture our attention, and they tend to get repeated and even embellished. In other posts, I reported survey results showing a preference for traditional publishing among authors. I also found that authors had expectations for several advantages of traditional publishing relative to self-publishing. With so many authors positively disposed toward traditional publishing, perhaps these horror stories are very visible and heartbreaking exceptions, a disappointing conclusion to the struggle to break into the traditionally published ranks.

Book lovers would rather be stripped of their clothes than their right to read freely.

A group of French booksellers and publishers took off their clothes Wednesday to protest conservative politician Jean-François Copé's call to censor a children's book from 2011 called "Everybody Gets Naked" (Tous à Poil), the Local reported.

The storybook shows that everyone takes off their clothes sometimes to calm children's fears about their own bodies, according to authors Claire Franek and Marc Daniau.

They wanted to present real bodies in natural situations "to counter the numerous images of bodies, often undressed, altered by Photoshop or plastic surgery, that are shown in ads or on the covers of magazines," according to Melville House Books.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

After you've sent out a few dozen queries to literary agents, and either not received a response from any of them, or gotten polite form rejections designed to soothe your pain while simultaneously increasing it, it's time to either hunker down or make a new plan.

(Frankly, it's better to get an email that says your work is "unreadable, unmarketable, and unpublishable," than a bland "Your story does not fit into our list, right now." At least you get to work up some righteous indignation.)

The other day I ran across an article on Writer's Digest by Kristi Belcamino - "Don’t Give Up Until You’ve Queried 80 Agents Or More." The article inspired me to get into my files and look up how many rejections I had received: 140. I clearly have a lot more work to do if I'm going to fulfill my New Year's resolution.

Kristi has given writers four pointers:

1. Perseverance. Be stubborn and refuse to ever give up.

2. Work. Cultivate a constant desire to improve as a writer. This means putting words, lots and lots of words, on paper. This also involves studying the craft of writing and reading as much as you can as often as possible.

3. Teflon Mentality. Develop a force field to deflect ego-smashing rejections. It is crucial to have the ability to effectively handle rejection, letting them bounce off you, and not allowing them to stop you from plugging away. (See #2 Work.)

4. Patience. Here’s a little secret — the world of publishing runs on a completely alternate universe concept of time. Tired of waiting to hear back from an agent or publisher or editor? Grab a beer and put your feet up.

If you keep all of the above in mind, and, in Ray Bradbury's words, "Write like hell!" I'm sure you can beat my record. (Although, you may not beat C. S. Lewis'. Click here for his truly astonishing number of rejections.)

That being said, you should keep in mind that the lines are increasingly becoming blurred between traditional publishing and self-publishing. Because of the dramatic success of Fifty Shades of Grey and Wool, publishers are beginning to accept works that have been previously epublished. Some agents are seeing the writing on the wall as well.

What this means for you, as a writer who does not want to go fifty shades of gray waiting for an agent to call, is that you can do both. If you've given it all you've got, don't grab a beer - design a cover, and publish.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Should you self-publish? The answer, according to Hugh Howey, is a resounding YES!! In fact, you'd have to be crazy not to.

A few days ago, Howey published an author earnings report that was eye-popping. After crunching the data on 7,000 bestselling e-books on Amazon, he not only discovered that Amazon was doing better than the Big Five, the authors were earning more as well.

This article contains great information about the financial side of self-publishing (with nice graphs and charts!). But not everyone agrees with the conclusions Howey draws. Digital Book World's survey appears to contradict the claim that self-published authors are earning more than those following the traditional route.

You should keep in mind that the data drawn from this sample was for Amazon books only. Amazon is quite successful at marketing its own books, which means ebooks from other publishers will not receive the same amount of publicity. This is also data taken from the authors themselves. Self-reporting is not the best means of collecting data, and neither are data drawn over a short period of time. (For an excellent critique of the Author Earnings Report by Sunita, click HERE.)

While it would be wonderful to have a clear-cut answer to the question "Should I self-publish?" it still comes down to weighing pros and cons. If you are impatient and want complete control over your book, then self-publish. If you are willing to wait, and want the pedigree and editorial guidance of a publisher's imprint, take the traditional route.

It’s no great secret that the world of publishing is changing. What is a secret is how much. Is it changing a lot? Has most of the change already happened? What does the future look like?

The problem with these questions is that we don’t have the data that might give us reliable answers. Distributors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble don’t share their e-book sales figures. At most, they comment on the extreme outliers, which is about as useful as sharing yesterday’s lottery numbers [link]. A few individual authors have made their sales data public, but not enough to paint an accurate picture. We’re left with a game of connect-the-dots where only the prime numbers are revealed. What data we do have often comes in the form of surveys, many of which rely on extremely limited sampling methodologies and also questionable analyses [link].

This lack of data has been frustrating. If writing your first novel is the hardest part of becoming an author, figuring out what to do next runs a close second. Manuscripts in hand, some writers today are deciding to forgo six-figure advances in order to self-publish [link]. Are they crazy? Or is signing away lifetime rights to a work in the digital age crazy? It’s hard to know.

Anecdotal evidence and an ever more open community of self-published authors have caused some to suggest that owning one’s rights is more lucrative in the long run than doing a deal with a major publisher. What used to be an easy decision (please, anyone, take my book!) is now one that keeps many aspiring authors awake at night. As someone who has walked away from incredible offers (after agonizing mightily about doing so), I have longed for greater transparency so that up-and-coming authors can make better-informed decisions. I imagine established writers who are considering their next projects share some of these same concerns.

Other entertainment industries tout the earnings of their practitioners. Sports stars, musicians, actors—their salaries are often discussed as a matter of course. This is less true for authors, and it creates unrealistic expectations for those who pursue writing as a career. Now with every writer needing to choose between self-publishing and submitting to traditional publishers, the decision gets even more difficult. We don’t want to screw up before we even get started.

When I faced these decisions, I had to rely on my own sales data and nothing more. Luckily, I had charted my daily sales reports as my works marched from outside the top one million right up to #1 on Amazon. Using these snapshots, I could plot the correlation between rankings and sales. It wasn’t long before dozens of self-published authors were sharing their sales rates at various positions along the lists in order to make author earnings more transparent to others [link] [link]. Gradually, it became possible to closely estimate how much an author was earning simply by looking at where their works ranked on public lists [link].

This data provided one piece of a complex puzzle. The rest of the puzzle hit my inbox with a mighty thud last week. I received an email from an author with advanced coding skills who had created a software program that can crawl online bestseller lists and grab mountains of data. All of this data is public—it’s online for anyone to see—but until now it’s been extremely difficult to gather, aggregate, and organize. This program, however, is able to do in a day what would take hundreds of volunteers with web browsers and pencils a week to accomplish. The first run grabbed data on nearly 7,000 e-books from several bestselling genre categories on Amazon. Subsequent runs have looked at data for 50,000 titles across all genres. You can ask this data some pretty amazing questions, questions I’ve been asking for well over a year [link]. And now we finally have some answers.

When Amazon reports that self-published books make up 25% of the top 100 list, the reaction from many is that these are merely the outliers. We hear that authors stand no chance if they self-publish and that most won’t sell more than a dozen copies in their lifetime if they do. (The same people rarely point out that all bestsellers are outliers and that the vast majority of those who go the traditional route are never published at all.) Well, now we have a large enough sample of data to help glimpse the truth. What emerges is, to my knowledge, the clearest public picture to date of what’s happening in this publishing revolution. It’s a lot to absorb, but I believe there’s much here to learn.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

This contest is now closed! If you missed it this year, you can always enter next year!

Today, Amazon is opening its doors to novelists with its annual Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. For those unfamiliar with this contest, it offers a great deal - better than most big publishing houses - for those who win. Best of all, it's free! So, if you have a novel gathering cyber dust on your computer, why not take a chance?
____________________

On February 16, Amazon Publishing will begin accepting submissions for its seventh annual Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, open to unpublished and self-published English-language novels. Authors can submit their general fiction, mystery/thriller, romance, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and young adult novels. The grand prize winner will receive an Amazon Publishing contract, with a $50,000 advance.

The 2014 ABNA contest is open to unpublished and self-published English-language novels submitted through March 2, or until 10,000 eligible entries are received, whichever is earlier. After two rounds of judging, Publishers Weekly reviewers will select the top five semi-finalists in each category. Amazon Publishing editors will lead a panel who will choose a finalist in each of the five categories, with Amazon customers selecting the grand prize winner. The four remaining finalists will receive an Amazon Publishing contract and a $15,000 advance.
____________________

The Seventh Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest is right around the corner. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to win a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing.

One Grand Prize winner will receive a publishing contract with a $50,000 advance, and four First Prize winners will each receive a publishing contract with an advance of $15,000. Visit the Prizes page for the full list of prizes and details.

The categories include five popular genres: General Fiction, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror and Young Adult Fiction. For complete eligibility details, view the Official Contest Rules, or read details on how to enter. Visit CreateSpace to learn more.

Preparing Your Entry

1) Prepare a strong Pitch. More than a summary, your Pitch should highlight your concept, protagonist, setting, and writing style—all the elements that make your story unique. View sample Pitches from past entrants.

2) Select the genre that best fits your book: General Fiction, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, or Young Adult.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

These three literary agents have opened their doors to new clients. As always, visit the website of their agencies, check their list of clients, check the publishers they work with, and read all submission requirements carefully before contacting. (Click on the name of the agent, or their agency, for more information.) To check an agent's history (for possible complaints) go to Preditors and Editors.

About Christopher: Christopher Rhodes’s career in publishing began in 1996 as a bookseller at Borders Books at the World Trade Center. He has held positions in both the sales and marketing departments at Simon and Schuster and was Executive Assistant to Carol Mann of the Carol Mann Agency where, among other duties, he managed contracts and assisted in the sale of foreign rights. Currently, Christopher is the Facility & Events Coordinator for the library at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where, working closely with the university’s Department of Creative Writing, he plans and hosts readings, writer’s conferences, and fiction writing contests. he is now an agent at the James Fitzgerald Agency.

About Allison: Allison Devereux is Associate Agent and Foreign & Subsidiary Rights Manager at Wolf Literary Services. She also assists Gillian MacKenzie of the Gillian MacKenzie Agency. She has been with WLS since 2012, working closely with Senior Agent and VP Adriann Ranta, with whom she jointly represents clients. A Texas native, Allison earned her B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated from the Plan II Honors Program. Before coming to WLS, Allison worked at Macmillan in Tor Books’ managing editorial department; prior to that, she was an Editorial and Design Assistant at the Institute of Classical Archaeology in Austin, as well as an intern at the Harry Ransom Center.

What she is seeking: Allison is looking for literary and upmarket commercial fiction with fresh, unique voices and tight prose. She enjoys stories set in familiar, relatable settings, with everyman characters who find themselves in unlikely, surprising, and unexpected situations. She is also passionate about magical realism (more real than magic), and idiosyncratic, picaresque characters.

For nonfiction, Allison is interested in narrative nonfiction, compelling memoir, and books on popular and contemporary culture with a strong, original premise. She is looking for illustrated/graphic books for adults (both fiction and non), as well as blog-to-book projects. She also loves a good humor book.

Allison tends to shy away from science fiction, fantasy, and other genre fiction. She is not interested in self-help, erotica, spiritualism, hard SF, epic fantasy, or stories about fairies.

How to contact her: To submit a project, please send a query letter addressed to Allison along with a 50-page writing sample (for fiction) or a detailed proposal (for nonfiction) to queries [at] wolflit.com. Samples may be submitted as an attachment or embedded in the body of the email. Read their submission guidelines HERE.

About Allison: Allison Hunter, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, began her publishing career in 2005 working for the Los Angeles-based literary publicity firm, Kim-from-L.A. She joined the InkWell team in New York City in 2010. She has a B.A. in American Studies and Creative Writing from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

What she is looking for: Allison is actively acquiring literary and commercial fiction (including romance), memoir, narrative nonfiction, cultural studies, pop culture and prescriptive titles, including cookbooks. She is always looking for funny female authors, great love stories and family epics, and for non-fiction projects that speak to the current cultural climate.

How to contact her: Contact Allison through the agency at submissions @ inkwellmanagement.com (remove spaces). In the body of your email, please include a query letter and a short writing sample (1-2 chapters). Response time may take up to two months. Read submission guidelines HERE.

Monday, February 10, 2014

I've been keeping tabs on the most recent Digital Book World/Writer's Digest survey, not just because I want to know what other writers are up to, but because I want the reassurance that we are all up to the same thing.

There is safety in numbers.

______________________________DBW 2014: Survey Finds Most Authors Want to Earn More

The Digital Book World/Writer's Digest 2014
survey, discussed at the organization's New York event this week, found
that, in spite of the growing popularity of self-publishing, many
authors would, given the chance, still opt for a traditional book deal.

Just over 9,200 authors responded to the survey, and they fall
into four categories: aspiring (not yet published in any manner);
self-published (have never worked with a traditional publisher);
traditionally published (have only been published by a traditional
house); and hybrid (have had experience self-publishing and have also
been published by a traditional house). The survey, which is available
for purchase at the DBW store, focuses on commercial fiction writers who
are not treating their writing as a full-time job, and would like to be
making more money from their writing.

Among some of the big picture takeaways from the survey are that,
despite some negative impressions of traditional publishing, it remains
the route many authors would like to pursue.

Although the sampled
authors felt traditional publishing offers less creative freedom, what
it provides in other areas--namely marketing, distribution and editorial
support--is a positive that outweighs the negative.

DBW found that the traditionally-published authors surveyed felt
traditional publishing offered "lackluster" experience relative to what
they hoped for, and expected.

Among hybrid
authors surveyed, DBW said they were showing a "pattern of movement"
from traditional houses to self-publishing. The DBW survey highlighted a
familiar tale of the traditionally-published author who, unhappy with
his or her treatment/sales/revenue, opts for self-publishing, which
offers a much higher royalty rate. Among these hybrid authors, there was
more satisfaction with self-publishing, and only 16.1% of this group,
DBW found, said they intended to go back to traditional publishing.

Most of the authors in the DBW sample who had been traditionally
published did not receive an advance, and almost all of the authors
interviewed identified advances as a benefit of traditional publishing.
Also, interestingly, DBW found that there was not a significant
discrepancy in sales among authors in the survey who self-published and
those who were traditionally published.

Overall, DBW found, these authors were not happy with their sales
period. As the survey notes: "Neither mode of publishing, it seems,
provided authors with what they hoped in terms of sales, earnings,
distribution, or marketing."

Saturday, February 8, 2014

This announcement raised my eyebrows. A master's degree in self-publishing? I can see a course, perhaps two, but not a degree. This is what they offer:

"This course will equip you with all of the necessary skills you will need to be a self-published author including how to edit your book, how to lay it out, how to monitor sales, how to manage yourself and your finances, marketing yourself and your book and how to create an eBook. The final part of the course will give you the opportunity to complete a finished copy of your book."

I'd be willing to bet money that online universities, and community colleges, will be offering courses soon - though perhaps not postgraduate degrees.

Alison Flood, theguardian.com, Wednesday 5 February 2014
The University of Central Lancashire has announced the launch of what it describes as the world's first degree in self-publishing.

The MA will begin in September, and course leader Debbie Williams believes it will help "legitimise" self-publishing. "Things have definitely changed. In the last two years, self-publishing has stopped being a dirty word, and is a legitimate option for authors," she said. "Even the biggest authors are looking at it now."

Despite the negative light in which self-publishing is viewed by some – Jeffrey Archer recently said "it doesn't work, don't do it. The only person who reads it is the person who gets it published", while Sue Grafton has characterised DIY-ers as "too lazy to do the hard work" – the university pointed to research from the books data company Bowker, which found that around 390,000 titles were self-published in the US in 2012, up 59% on 2011 and a massive 422% on 2007. Digital self-publishing also continues to boom, accounting for 40% of self-published titles in the US in 2012, up from just 11% in 2007, according to Bowker.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics." (Although it is attributed to Disraeli, I have to say the phrase smacks heavily of Mark Twain.)

Statistics can indeed be made to lie (it was one of the first things I learned in my stats class), but nevertheless, as a people, Americans love numbers.

Here are some numbers that may help shed some light on the business of publishing in the U.S.

39 percent increase between 1990 and 2005 in the number of writers and authors

Sources: Publishers Weekly, “Artists and Arts Workers in the United States Findings from the American Community Survey” (2005-2009) and the “Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages” (2010), American Booksellers Association, Bowker Books in Print, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Huffington Post, LA Times, The New York Times.

The first number that should jump out at you is 1. One percent of all books sold in the US are stocked in an actual bookstore. But far more than 1 percent of writers in the US publish hard copy, either through publishers, or on their own dime.

Yet (here comes the second important number) 347, 148 books (more than half) were published by traditional publishers. What this means is that your chances of seeing your book on a bookstore shelf are slim, even if you get published by one of the big houses.

More than anything else, these numbers reveal the true reason writers are turning to self-publishing (76% in 2008), and epublishing. Authors want their books to be read. And if there is next to no chance of getting exposure, even with a publisher to back you, you are going to jump ship and self publish.

Despite the promises of traditional publishers - distribution being high on the list - these numbers don't lie.

Ready to send your book out and contact agents? The last thing you want to do is to rush that submission out the door and hurt your book’s chances.

When submitting your all-important query to agents or editors, it’s not just a question of what to write in the letter—it’s also a question of what not to write.

I asked 11 literary agents about their personal query letter pet peeves and compiled them below. Check out the list to learn all about what details to avoid in a query that could sink your submission—such as vague wording, too much personal information, grammatical mistakes, and much more.

———

“I think the biggest querying no-no I’ve ever seen was when an author tracked down some sensitive personal information and included it in their cover letter. Eeep! As agents we absolutely love when authors do their research and get to know our interests, but you want to always make sure what you include in your query letter is professional and that you don’t slip too far into the realm of the personal.

The biggest no-no I’ve seen recently probably would be authors whose query letters focus too much on their author bios and don’t tell me what their book is about! Make sure you put those essential story details up front.”

“[Just recently], somebody queried me with a YA fantasy—and in the place where they should have put their professional bio or a few sentences about themselves, they had taken on the persona of their main character and said something about the character instead … Queries are business letters. Agenting is a business. Publishing is a business. I try to be nice and friendly and funny and all, but the bottom line is that I expect those with whom I work to be professional and take what they’re doing seriously.”

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Write-A-House, a Detroit-based literary organization founded in 2012 by novelist Toby Barlow, hopes to energize the literary community in the Motor City by giving writers not just a room of their own, but an entire home. WAH launched an Indiegogo campaign on Tuesday to raise funds to begin renovating the first of the three homes already purchased by WAH that will be deeded to emerging writers after they have lived in them for two years. “It’s like a writer’s-in-residence program, but the writers get to keep the homes, forever,” states the Indiegogo page titled “Write A House: Renovation of the Peach House.” Members of Young Detroit Builders, an organization that trains young people how to rehabilitate and renovate houses, will do the actual work on the houses alongside a licensed contractor. The three houses that have been purchased to date are all within walking distance of one another in what WAH describes as neighborhoods that are “a rich quilt of culture and change.” WAH bought the three houses for a total of $2,000. Renovations to each is estimated to cost $50,000-$60,000.

WAH's housing program is open to writers anywhere in the world who are willing to relocate to Detroit. “Detroit visual arts & Detroit musical arts have gotten a ton of attention over the years, but we believe this is a city that could really use some more writers,” WAH’s Indiegogo page states, “Any and all writers who are looking for a new home and new inspiration are encouraged to apply.” WAH will begin accepting applications in spring 2014.

WAH hopes to raise $25,000 through Indiegogo in the next 60 days, which will cover approximately 50% of the cost of renovating the first house. The organization hopes to raise the rest of the funds needed through grants by local and national arts foundations. WAH intends to buy more existing housing stock in the city as needed to renovate and then award them to eligible writers. The median sales price for houses in the city itself in the fourth quarter is $41,000.

"Detroit has no shortage of affordable housing stock," Barlow noted, "Writers can take advantage of all the great stories and possibilities this city has to offer, and the affordable lifestyle. Living in these abandoned cities is one of the greatest opportunities. And with the Internet, you can stay in touch with what's going on in New York and LA, and not have to pay those astronomical prices for housing. It's tough being a writer right now." Barlow, who lived in Brooklyn for nine years and in San Francisco for another nine years, has lived in downtown Detroit for seven years.